Our Annual Picnic

President's Message

Hello to our website visitors. The San Diego Prowlers are now well into our 71st year. It is August and it's hot even in San Diego. This was our first Summer
since the early '70s that we haven't staged our annual

"Picnic and Ol' Timers Reunion". It really feels good to relax a little and have time to drive our hot rods and maybe even work on them a little.

As promised we are reinventing ourselves back into "doing whatever we want" for a change and leave the event planning to promoters who enjoy that stuff!

We are still the unchallenged "oldest hot rod club" continuously corrupting young men since 1947 so please dig in to our webpages and visit the hot rod club that
has been there the whole time. See the men, cars and their hobby from post WWII to the present that was the laboratory of power and style that helped shape today’s automobile.

News

Jerry Baltes - Prowlers Associate Member

The story begins in 1952!

Jerry Baltes member 29/2 was the first to take advantage of becoming an Associate Member and sent us a fantastic bio of his history both with the Prowlers and as a professional Drag Racer
from the '50's.

The first drag race I attended was in 1952 at paradise Mesa (east of National City). Followed by Santa Ana, Saugas, and Pomona. By 1954 / 1955, I was racing at Colton, Holtville, and
San Fernando also.

I belonged to the San Diego Prowlers Car Club, where we were members of the Russetta Timing Association, making monthly trips to El Mirage dry lake.

My first race cars were 1940 and 1946 Ford B-Stock Sedans. Later switching to the aerodynamic 1940 B-Stock Coupe.

In 1953, Jerry made his first trip to the Bonneville Salt Flats.

In 1954 and 1955 my 1932 Ford C-Gas Coupe was a constant winner at many Southern California drag strips. I once won my class at Pomona and Santa Ana drag strips in the same day.

This day, I ran 95.34 in the coupe.

In early 1955 I switched to Altered Coupe. This photo was just prior to my trip to the first NHRA U.S. Nationals in Great Bend, KS. This car was consistently a winner and produced my
first sponsor.

1956 saw my first Gas Dragster. The engine was from the Altered Coupe. The chassis was assembled from my daughter's swing set by Joaquin Arnett of the Bean Bandits.

There were a number of Oldsmobile powered Dragsters that lead up to this car, which was featured in Car Craft magazine in August, 1962.

Jerry's career as a drag racer is legendary! The Prowlers are proud of Jerry and thank him for providing some of these photos and news articles for us to include in the website. We are
very proud to have Jerry as an Associate Member.

In 2002, Jerry was inducted into the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame. It is a great honor!